Building a better chart

Sectional chart sales have slumped for the FAA as pilots forgo the classic printed maps for their electronic counterparts. Now Duracharts is looking to pick up where the FAA has left off.

Starting July 1, the FAA stopped selling sectional chart subscriptions, requiring any pilot who wants to ensure uninterrupted access to current charts to search elsewhere. Duracharts thinks it has the answer with its beefed-up charts that are now available by subscription.

Duracharts claim to be tear resistant and water resistant. Airshow goers have likely seen the demonstration of the booth operators as they tug and pull in ways that would easily rip an FAA sectional. But Duracharts appear to stand up to the abuse, which most pilots are more than happy to provide to a piece of paper that has to be folded and drawn on for six months.

The company is offering discounts for AOPA members and flight instructors. Contact Duracharts on the website or call 706/993-9741.

Although Congress is about to break for its August recess, AOPA members should keep calling their elected officials and asking them to co-sponsor the Pilot's Bill of Rights 2 (PBR2), said AOPA Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Jim Coon.

Mark Scheuer was tired of yelling at his wife across the noisy cockpit of their Grumman Yankee, and he thought there had to be a better way of communicating. PS Engineering Inc. was born out of that necessity and is now celebrating its third decade of forging new ground in cockpit communication technology.

A tale of flying adventure, severe injuries, international political maneuvering, and an emergency at sea comes to life in "Floatplane Odyssey," a book that commemorates the twenty-fifth anniversary of Tom Casey’s 1990 around-the-world flight in a Cessna 206 on floats.